Black, blue, red, brown, orange, yellow. What do all of these colors have in common?
Turns out they’re all section codenames in Xander Naylor’s latest single, Pursuit. “I brought in the notation for Pursuit but the band wasn’t having it. The song was crying for more dynamism. In five minutes, we created a color-coding system. When we went into the studio, I called out the entire song by yelling colors into a mic. I improvised the form on the spot.”
Can we sustain a new, revolutionary outlook in consciousness in the face of a modern culture of consumerism, instant gratification, and self-centeredness? Naylor describes the style of his latest batch of recordings, of which Pursuit is the first release, as “calculated chaos.” Exploration, extrapolation, expression in music, art and culture, continuing into sub-layers of languages, thought and of communication, consciousness.
Poise meets flow. Diversity distilled into unity.
Pursuit is a distillation. Appearing out of a void in creativity, it materialized to reveal itself as story of the inner voice. There is a cry for continuing navigation towards self-realization with ease, acceptance, and dedication.
What is the place of spirituality next to the screen in my palm?
Pursuit is about discovery - new expressions for inner power and new habits of expression. Neural pathways. Compositionally, this piece employs subtly permutating rhythmic patterns, and digital layers create glitchy, shifting perspectives; a viewing of human emotion through a digitized lens. Naylor: “When the bad gets together to rehearse, we typically learn the forms, then live we deconstruct them in real-time. We often spontaneously remove sections entirely. We read minds.”
Shifting perspectives is not a new endeavor for Naylor. For over ten years, he has been consistently releasing new music and establishing himself on the experimental side of the New York music scene. Most recently, he has honed his extensive studies of North Indian Hindustani classical music, fusing this element with his more experimental rock- and jazz-centered work, creating new paths for melodic and rhythmic exploration. New spiritualities and new mentalities, sensibilities, adding to the flow.
Naylor welcomes opportunities to wax on the morphing and widening approach: “On the most personal level, I am constantly honing my guitar techniques to convey my musical ideas with maximal focus, continually modifying them with the aim of creating the cleanest embodiment of my mental and physical states and their interconnectedness through music.”
This February, Naylor returns to India for an extended, month-long tour, forming an overseas lineup of his band Sound Machine with Vinay Kaushal (bass) and Shreyas Iyengar (drums). Naylor will be performing in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Shillong.
Xander Naylor is a guitarist, improviser, and composer who combines avant jazz, post-rock, and Indian classical music, into
a singular new sound, described by The Critical Masses as “a language all his own.” Naylor has performed all over the world, most recently a two-month tour of India (Feb-March, 2020). Continuum it is a statement of inclusivity....more
Throwing mathcore, emo, and ambient into the mix, Estonia's Kaschalot push progressive rock's multitasking approach to its limits. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 10, 2021
Strange and angsty alternative rock from Los Angeles that hovers between haunting and pretty and sharp and driving. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 27, 2023
The latest album from British indie rock band is filled with pared back tracks recorded in various countries while the band was on tour. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 23, 2020
Anyone homesick for the classic sound of ’90s math rock will fall in love with the jagged guitars & tricky tempos on “LLC.” Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 6, 2023